See-through pillar is 'exciting safety'

The see-through windscreen pillar in Volvo's SCC is only a concept. But the Swedish carmaker's engineers believe a bonded pillar could be as strong as today's reinforced steel.

"We are working to achieve this and it could mean using composite materials," Volvo researcher Hans Gustavsson told.

"We must also find out if it can be handled by production - and if the customers like it."

The man behind the SCC was Ford design chief Richard Parry-Jones. Volvo is owned by Ford and comes under its luxury arm Premier Automotive Group.

Volvo designer Peter Horbury penned the concept. He told AutoExpress: "The SCC is first a safety concept to re-establish Volvo's safety credentials.

"But doing a concept is always a chance to experiment in public. Safety is a Volvo core value - but in the past it's tended to be associated with boring, stodgy, slow cars, as if by definition safety was less interesting.

"You added safety by adding mass. But that's not going to get you far today, when fuel consumption matters.

"With this car we wanted to make safety exciting, by designing a good-looking car that was also extremely safe."

As for the see-through pillar, Horbury says: "You see the safety aspects every time you use this car."